Hi, lavender, I feel as if we're old friends from Smaller Homes/Old House sites, so I came looking for you, after reading your current threads in discussions. Thank you for the 'shout-out' about my hood. It was kind, as every post of yours that I've read has been kind and helpful. Also--keep your chin up! We've done what you are proposing, on a very small budget, 'paying as we go', although that did involve refinancing our home several years ago, for the biggest project, a 30'x12' story-and-a-half addition, with a partially covered concrete porch. In all it's taken 16 years, and I'm not finished yet! When we bought our house, it had been a rental for 10 years, on the 3-acre remnant of an old dairy farm. Many potential buyers had viewed it and said that it would take too much work. But I had a vision (actually not my vision at first--my parents saw it and convinced me that the property would work for our then-young family). The yard had been neglected, and sadly all the original woodwork and trim had been removed, but the structure was basically sound. As our family grew, we added rooms and made other improvements (new roof and septic system, as needed). We are DIY'ers, and have an extended family-and-friends network of contractors, woodworkers, excavaters, and painters, so our projects have been made much more affordable than if we'd had to hire out all the work, but you may have the same resources, too. I just want you to know that I understand your dreams, love your ideas and pictures, and I know it can be done!!

I have been following all of these discussions and just want to say that I am guilty of not reading everything in the FAQ's and policies, because I assumed (and you know what they say about assuming) they were general policies like most boards (be nice, no sleaze, etc., etc.). So as a newbie, I completely apologize if I should have asked questions over here on this side instead of the other side, but I think all my questions were on topic, therefore, on the correct side (the other side). I am okay with the off topic stuff over here and project related on other side. It makes it easier to sort through what posts I really want to check out and learn from. If you don't mind me adding one more thing, the conversations/discussions links are not very noticeable, could they be enlarged so that they are more prominent and visible? I'm not blind or anything, but I didn't notice the links for quite awhile because they just blend into the page. Thanks for having a wonderful forum where I can learn and be inspired. I appreciate all of your work and knowledge--A LOT!!

Scott, forgot to mention the other day that I am glad that you and your son was not hurt during the storm. I had a close friend that lost his little girl many many years ago during a bad thunderstorm. She was opening the door as a power line came down and the electricity arced from the ground up through the door. She'd be in her thrirties now, if she were still with us. I'm REAL careful now, especially since I now live in the lightning capitol of the world. I've seen lightning "balls" move through a room after it entered an outlet where a lamp was plugged in. When it comes to sensing "ghosts" I once saw a documentary about a study the military did, with the belief that humans actually have extra senses in addition to ESP. It is believed that some people can still tap into some of that, but over thousands of years,( due to not using our full senses), have lost most of our abilities in that regard. Most of us still have good gut feelings though, which I believe is part of all of that. Cats are fascinating creatures. My vet thinks I'm a bit soft in the head when I mention that I feel they communicate with each other via telepathy. I've witnessed where nothing else could explain certain behaviors. One of my cats also knows the second I open my eyes in the morning, and he is not anywhere near our room at the time. I can also put the flea control on one of them, out of sight and smell, and immediately the rest of them know and go hide. There was a story in either a magazine or newspaper one time that told of a cat that lived in a nursing home, for the benefit of the people that had to live there. The nurses knew when someone was going to die soon because that cat would go and sit with that person, and not leave their side until after they passed on. Haven't figured out who the conversation police are, but I think we've made it clear that we are all pretty independantly minded, and don't care what they think, or even if they like us for that matter. We're certainly not hurting anyone, nor are we bogging down the forum. Worked on floor plan stuff this weekend. I was very cranky and not very pleasant to be with. My poor husband! He knows I like lofts and told me to design one in. (Anything to get me out of my bad mood....). But, you know, I keep talking to people that have awfully huge electric bills this year that have lofts in their homes. The other thing that made me think twice was looking at some really cute tiny log cabin package deals with the Cracker Style Log Home people. The kits are a fraction of what it would cost to build a nicely finished loft, AND it would be considered an outbuilding for tax purposes. We would just factor in the materials rather than get a kit, since I feel it's a bit less expensive to do that, and I can get the windows I want through Home Depot. (I like Andersons). I do think we are getting close to hammering out the blueprints. If I have trouble posting the floor plan idea, would it be O.K. to e-mail it to one of you? Sandy

I'd honestly be more concerned with how the angle is handled than grout. With multi-material mosaics each one can cut differently as each material is different. They should be able to get an angle but it's never the easiest thing because the tiles have to meet & match perfectly. I would expect that would mean 1/2 tile on each half of the corner -- so it looks like a single tile. I'd surely ask in advance at Bridge. Making that come out exactly is no easy thing. They might want to start there and work towards the corners where a different cut might be less noticeable as it's adjacent to molding or dying into the wall. I learned this because I had a 4 color tile design on my splash and it was handmade tile and not even in size. It also had to turn a corner. It might possibly be the setter wants to put a vertical line of pencil pieces over the corner and tile up to it. That slightly blunts the edge. They could use pencil pieces from the range (if they exist). Or, they could do a line of single mosaics of one material cut off the mesh (not as nice but acceptable if done well). Only way to know how it will cut is if someone had worked with that exact mosaic before. But I wouldn't want to have the setter come to that realization with wet thinset on the wall IYKWIM. Or think a crappy looking or uneven joint there will be ok when it certainly won't because it wasn't discussed and they started at the back. If someone tells you bullnose should go there, tell them you think it's too "bathroomy" and what else can you do? Might be a good idea to loop in the contractor in advance. He likely isn't focused on any of these issues. I'd ask if he could look at the time and the angle and tell you how it will look and if any special tile pieces might be needed.